Wave Machine Model Documents

Main Document

The Wave Machine model simulates the wave machine produced by John Shive at Bell Laboratories and made famous by the PSSC Simple Waves film. The machine consists of horizontal bars welded to a torsion rod that is perpendicular to the bars. The simulation allows the user to change the lengths of the bars, thereby simulating the effect of a wave propagating in a non-uniform medium.

The simulation allows various pulse shapes to be sent down the machine by selecting a function for the twist of the first rod or by dragging the first rod. For example, applying a Gaussian twist produces a Gaussian traveling pulse but the width of this pulse depends on the wave speed. The far end of the wave machine can be free or clamped and this changes the nature of the reflected wave.

The Wave Machine model was created using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) modeling tool. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the ejs_mech_osc_chains_WaveMachine.jar file will run the program if Java is installed.